Weekend Update 3/7/21

[nkalanaga]

Chuck:  Yes, it looks better this way.  I liked the tree, having grown up where trees had to be planted and watered, but it looks better here.

[Iain]

You, rebel, you. 

DFF

Anarchist, actually 

[John]

Anarchist, actually 

are you living in the chop zone?

[R L Smith]

Construction of the Bergen Laser station kit stalled after starting on the roof build and discovering the two roof shingle sections were not included. An email to them was answered within minutes and parts were promised.  The kit has been discontinued so I suspect they had to pull the old files to produce the parts.   

mrhedley, my kit was also missing the roof shingles.  One other error to look for - the small dormer roof shingles that are one of the last items added in the assembly. Each dormer should have a "left" and a "right" shingle piece; mine were all "lefts". Since you received a response from the vendor, check that part out too as you may need replacements.

Ron

[Loren Perry]

Yikes!  Either that's a lot of tiny soldering (and very well done!) or you've swiped Peteski's giant comedy dime.

Try soldering leads to N-Gineering's Micro LED's if you want a challenge. (I've never tried their Nano's.) After doing a few of these, soldering up one of those brass Model T trucks will have you thinking you're working on an O-scale model.

BTW, nice job, Iain. Let's see it again when you've painted it.

[ednadolski]

Busy weekend for me:  my first 3D print of parts that I drew myself, using Sketchup and Chitubox.   These are just some simple geometric shapes (rectangles, tubes, angles, up tp 1" tall w/0.015" thick walls).   I'm pretty pleased with the job this printer can do.   Key lesson (for me at least): support is everything.



Ed

[R L Smith]

Continued progress on the upper deck of my Erie / DL&W / B&H layout. I've nearly completed the staging helix that will connect the ends of the mainline loop. It's a 1 and 3/4 turn, 4 track Unitrak helix with crossovers to allow trains in the same direction to overtake each other ( to avoid  "first-in / first-out" staging). A mix of new and recycled track sections (but with all new joiners on the recycled track for reliability), it is 95% complete and 75% wired. It is installed above the "wedding cake" helix that connects the lower deck to the upper deck.



One issue that came up with the Kato track was the geometry of the turnouts and curves I had on hand didn't quite line up at the upper end, so I cut down a curved piece to fit.







Code 80 joiners and some file work, and it fits! Next step - soldering iron...

[mrhedley]

mrhedley, my kit was also missing the roof shingles.  One other error to look for - the small dormer roof shingles that are one of the last items added in the assembly. Each dormer should have a "left" and a "right" shingle piece; mine were all "lefts". Since you received a response from the vendor, check that part out too as you may need replacements.

Ron

Thank you for the tip.  I’ll check it out. 

I would love to see pics of your build out.  If you don’t want to post them, please PM me.

Ron (also)

[narrowminded]

...   I'm pretty pleased with the job this printer can do.   Key lesson (for me at least): support is everything.

Ed

Welcome to the dark side.

[OldEastRR]

The square is revised from last Sunday.

Not to be picky for picky's sake, and most criticisms come from pretty subjective viewpoints -- thus a lot of them can be ignored -- but there are some items in situations that just looking at them the viewer knows it can't work. This is in general.

Specifically, I'm worried some guy in a big rig is going to be too close to the edge of the road when he goes over the crossings and his trailer whacks off half of the crossbucks. There are state and RR rules about placement of signs and traffic control devices but sometimes just eyeballing something is enough to see the problem.

Lest you think this is frivolous, a few years ago a driver with an over-sized load went tooling across a bridge in the wrong lane, smashed off an overhead support, and the entire span fell into the river. Happened in Washington state.

[nkalanaga]

I-5 north of Seattle.  In his defense, he had oversized load permits, and the state's website for such stuff gave only the clearance in the center of the bridge.  The cross beams were curved, as is common.

The driver was in the outside lane, where clearance was less than the posted amount.  As a slow vehicle, he was supposed to be there.  He tried to pull over, but a passenger vehicle in the inside lane had him blocked.  So, he didn't clear the beam.

In the resulting lawsuits, the state actually argued that it was the truck driver's fault, for not knowing the actual clearances, before driving the route.  Claimed they had no responsibility to give  the minimum clearance for each lane!  I don't know how it actually ended up, but the repairs were expensive, and, I believe, the state changed both their oversize permit procedures AND the signage on such bridges.

[altohorn25]

Ran some trains on part of the Modutrak layout this past Sunday morning.

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[signalmaintainer]

I-5 north of Seattle.  In his defense, he had oversized load permits, and the state's website for such stuff gave only the clearance in the center of the bridge.  The cross beams were curved, as is common.

The driver was in the outside lane, where clearance was less than the posted amount.  As a slow vehicle, he was supposed to be there.  He tried to pull over, but a passenger vehicle in the inside lane had him blocked.  So, he didn't clear the beam.

In the resulting lawsuits, the state actually argued that it was the truck driver's fault, for not knowing the actual clearances, before driving the route.  Claimed they had no responsibility to give  the minimum clearance for each lane!  I don't know how it actually ended up, but the repairs were expensive, and, I believe, the state changed both their oversize permit procedures AND the signage on such bridges.

Yes, remember that incident well. Look, WSDOT isn't exactly the habitue of state employees with IQs over 90, so really no surprise that the disaster ensued eventually. If I recall, thankfully no one died.

But the modeling in the diorama? That's some great work!

[chuck geiger]

Going to add overhead crossing signals. Shapeways dummy ones and set them back on each approach.

[nkalanaga]

signalmaintainer:  As far as I remember, you're right, no fatalities, although at least one motorist had to be fished out of the river.  Overall, they got very lucky, and learned some valuable lessons.